Terran Super Warship
Background/story Stellar Track was a game that was released for the Atari 2600 in 1980 and was sold exclusively through Sears department stores. Its story revolved around a race known as the Terrans that started off a series of trades (their art for an aliens’ warp technology for their spaceships) with an alien race, but things got heated between the two civilizations, leading to a war against the aliens and the Terrans, the latter of which government built an indestructible Starfleet and two Galactic Starbases in order to rid the Terrans of the aliens. The player controlled a Terran Super Warship used to clear out the galaxy of the alien ships. It was a turn-based game, alternating between the aliens and the player entering commands during turns. Gameplay Gameplay involved the player using their Warship to travel throughout the galaxy to destroy a set number of alien ships before running out of Stardates or energy. The player used scanners and a galaxy map in order to locate enemy ships. Once one or more alien ships were located on the Long Range Scanner or Galaxy Map, the player had to then warp their ship to that sector, which would initiate combat, with the aliens getting in the first round of attack, which they would automatically damage the player’s ship. The closer they were, the more damage they would bring to the Warship. If the player ran out of Stardates or energy before clearing out all alien ships, the game would end and the player would receive a ranking. If all alien ships were destroyed with one or more Stardates remaining, the player would receive a congratulatory message and a higher rank than if they had lost the game would be awarded. Terran Super Warship With each new game, the player’s ship starts off with 3000 units of energy, along with a set number of Stardates and alien ships to destroy. Their ship is indestructible, although if they do not clear out the galaxy of alien ships before running out of Stardates or run out of energy then the game ends. Ship functions/equipment, general The Warship has a variety of equipment and functions that are used during a game. *Galaxy Map–this is a 6 x 6 grid that shows where the player has traveled during a game. With a new game, all quadrants are shown as zeroes (00) until the player starts moving their Warship around, then all adjoining quadrants will show what they consist of, whether they are empty, contain one to three alien ships and/or a Galactic Starbase. *Long Range Scan–similar to the Galaxy Map, although this reveals what is in the adjacent six quadrants surrounding the player’s current Warship location. *Short Range Scan–reveals the 8x8 grid contents of a sector the player is currently in, showing the player’s Warship, stars and/or possible alien ships and/or a Galactic Starbase. *Status–gives information in regards to (mostly) various ship functions, including: **Stardates remaining **Aliens remaining **Energy remaining **Photons remaining **(Photon) Launcher status (either being functional or displaying number of Stardates needed to repair) **Phasors’ status (same as above) **Engines’ status **Short Range Scan status **Long Range Scan status **Quadrant location of ship **Sector location of ship *Warp–allows the player to warp their Warship either around a sector or to another quadrant. Ship functions, defense During combat, the player’s Warship has two weapons at their disposal, one being Phasors, which can be used against one or more enemy ships inside a sector. These will spread out over an area, as the closer alien ships are to the player’s Warship, the more damage they will do. Up to 999 energy units can be used at a time for Phasors. Photon Torpedoes, on the other hand, can only be fired in one of eight directions, rather than in a general fashion like Phasors do, which will destroy an alien ship upon contact. They also do not take up any energy, unlike with Phasors. The Warship can only carry a maximum of nine Torpedoes at a time, however. Damage The player’s Warship will suffer damage in several ways during an attack, which could include the ship’s Scanners (either Long or Short Range), which disables them to the point where scans to either quadrants or sectors (respectively) cannot be performed. The Warship’s Photon Launcher can also cease to function, as well as Phasors. Engines, however, will still work, although each sector move until they are fixed takes up one Stardate and each move is the equivalent of moving the Warship from quadrant to quadrant. All damages could be repaired only via time/Stardates: if a Warship’s system has a damage of a -3, it would take the completion of three turns before that function would start working again. If no ship functions are damaged during an attack, energy will still be lost during a round with every enemy ship attack. Recharging/restocking, repair Docking with a Galactic Starbase during a game will fully recharge the Warship back up to 3000 energy units, repair any damage, and restock the Warship to a full complement of nine Photon Torpedoes. Trivia The Warship looks like the U. S. S. Enterprise from Star Trek. This was intentional, as Atari tried to license the Star Trek name from Paramount, but the license wasn’t granted (hence why the terms of Photon Torpedo, Stardates and Warp still remain intact, all of which are part of Trek lore). Category:Stellar Track ships